LOS ANGELES — If you tuned into the game just 15 minutes late on Saturday, you probably thought your screen was glitching. A 9-1 scoreline is the kind of lopsided margin that usually takes a full night of offense to build — but the Dodgers delivered that exact cushion in the bottom of the first inning alone.
The brief flash of early trouble — an RBI triple by the Angels’ Oswald Peraza in the top half of the frame — was instantly rendered a footnote. By the time the Dodgers finally traded their bats for gloves for the second inning, they had completely altered the trajectory of the night, ultimately going on to win, 9-2.
The nine-run outburst marked the highest-scoring frame for the Dodgers in 2026, surpassing a six-run inning against the Cubs on April 25.
It also represented the single biggest first inning across Major League Baseball since Aug. 1, 2025, when the Pirates put up nine runs in the opening frame against the Rockies at Coors Field. To find a more prolific first inning in recent franchise history, fans would have to look back to June 2, 2021, when the Dodgers hung 11 runs on the Cardinals.
The sequence began with Shohei Ohtani legging out a leadoff infield single. Andy Pages then locked onto an 89.6 mph changeup from Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz, launching a towering two-run fly ball that sailed deep into left field and plunged straight into the Dodgers’ bullpen.
Waiting beneath it was reliever Blake Treinen, who tracked the flight and made a clean catch in midair. The grab sent his fellow bullpen members into a frenzy, with pitchers and staff jumping up and down in an impromptu celebration circle while Pages rounded the bases.
“The homer by Andy to answer back was big,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Kind of put to bed any type of momentum they had in the top of the first. And then after that, just the hits kept coming, just good at-bats.”
The Dodgers wasted no time extending the lead. Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts hit back-to-back singles, both advancing on a wild pitch before Max Muncy reached on a comebacker that Kochanowicz couldn’t handle. Ryan Ward capitalized by hammering a line-drive double to center field, bringing Freeman and Betts home — yet another productive moment for Ward since his promotion on May 29.
“He just seems very relaxed,” Roberts said. “He seems confident. His swings show that. … You lose an All-Star in [Teoscar] Hernández, but you get a way to get a guy that’s been in our system an opportunity. And that’s fun. That’s fun for everyone.”
The mounting pressure broke the Angels’ defensive composure. Following a walk to Dalton Rushing, the Angels brought in reliever Brent Suter. Instead of halting the rally, Alex Freeland pushed a grounder to shortstop Zach Neto, whose throwing error allowed Muncy, Ward and Rushing to all cross the plate.
“We always say … you can’t give good teams extra outs,” Roberts said. “… To give us extra outs just makes us really tough to beat. [We] stress a starter, and then we got to their ’pen and got deep into their ’pen, which was good. And yeah, we’ve become a lot more opportunistic.”
His team staked to a six-run lead, Ohtani stepped back into the batter’s box to put an exclamation point on the frame. He caught a 89.9 mph sinker on the inner half, drilling a two-run shot deep into center field for his 11th home run of the season. Ohtani’s second hit of the inning accounted for the final runs of an 11-batter offensive stretch.
The Dodgers’ offense was unable to push across another run afterwards, but the substantial lead allowed them to pull key starters early. That included lifting Freeman in the fourth inning for pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas.
“We went dormant after that,” Roberts acknowledged. “But I just thought it was great the way we answered in that first inning, and allowing us to get Freddie off of his feet for more than half the game, I thought, was good.”
Source link
